For both of these reasons nonsense words were the
material used as foreign symbols in the B set.

The nonsense words were composed in the following
manner. From a box containing four of each of
the vowels and two of each of the consonants the letters
were chosen by chance for a four-letter, a five-letter,
and a six-letter word in turn. The letters were
then returned to the box, mixed, and three more words
were composed. At the completion of a set of
twelve any which were not readily pronounceable or
were words or noticeably suggested words were rejected
and others composed in their places.

The series of the B set were four couplets
long. Each series contained one three-letter,
one four-letter, one five-letter, and one six-letter
nonsense word. The position in the series occupied
by each kind was constantly varied. In all other
respects the same principles were followed in constructing
the B set as were observed in the A
set with the following substitutions:

No two foreign symbols of a series and no two terms
of a couplet contained the same sounded vowel in accented
syllables.

The rule for the avoidance of alliteration, rhyme,
and assonance was extended to the foreign symbols,
and to the two terms of a couplet.

The English pronounciation was used in the nonsense
words. The subjects were not informed what the
nonsense words were. They were called foreign
words.

Free body movements were used in the movement series
as in the A set. Rarely an object was
involved, e.g., the table on which the subject
wrote. The movements were demonstrated to the
subject in advance of learning, as in the A
set.

The following are typical B series:

B2. Nonsense words and objects.

quaro rudv xem lihkez
lid cent starch thorn

B3. Nonsense words and verbs.

dalbva fomso bloi kyvi
poke limp hug eat

B4. Nonsense words and movements.

ohv wecolu uxpa haymj
gnash cross frown twist

The time conditions for presenting a series remained
practically the same. In learning, the series
was shown three times as before. The interval
between learning and testing was shortened to 4 seconds,
and in the test the post-term interval of A^{13-16}
retained (6 secs.). This allowed the subject
9 secs. for recalling and writing each term.
The only important change was an extension of the number
of tests from two to four. The third test was
one week after the second, and the fourth one week
after the third. In these tests the familiar word
was always the term required, as in A^{1-4},
on account of the difficulty of dealing statistically
with the nonsense words. The intervals for testing
permanence in the B set may be most easily
understood by giving the time record of one subject.